Qualitative research has at last achieved full respectability in the academic sphere, and the success of commercial qualitative market research is demonstrably substantial. This article traces the history of qualitative research back to the time when both strands meet, in an academic source aware of the commercial value of applied psychology, drawing upon techniques that seek to explore and explain human behaviour. It is argued that the modern understanding of qualitative research comprises a ‘package’ of component parts, and that the essential elements of these were first identifiable, beginning in 1925, in the work and advocacy of the psychologist, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld.

This article takes a light‐hearted look at the reasons why research is conducted. The research community itself comes under investigation.

A programme of group discussions among buyers of research revealed a variety of reasons for commissioning work. Although much research is conducted for rational reasons, the evidence suggests that power struggles within companies are of major importance in deciding exactly what projects shall be undertaken and several categories of “political” research emerged. The relationship between the research buyer and his researcher can be adversely affected if one or other (usually the researcher) suffers from “boffin syndrome”. A classification of research projects is offered. For research buyers, jobs can be boring or interesting; in type, there are methodical jobs, “panic” jobs and “couch” jobs—which begin and end in therapeutic advice from the buyer to the research user.

When companies recognise the limitations of seat-of-pants decision making, it is not always immediately clear where to turn in order to procure the information and advice that can result in better business decisions. The chosen resource might be a research agency (assumed to be fast-acting); a management consultancy (likely to be reassuringly expensive); or sources in the academic world (popularly seen as 'leading-edge'). What is delivered will depend on the type of supplier chosen: so far, each of these resources has developed in isolation, with its own assumptions, methods and codes of conduct.Nowhere is this more starkly seen than among providers of qualitative research, the discipline that gave birth to focus groups and marketing-oriented depth interviews. Depending on the supplier, the client may be provided with research that is process-based, skills-based or knowledge-based. The design, practice and analysis of the research will differ accordingly.In this paper, it is argued that the time has come to establish a new form of business consultancy which understands the strengths and weaknesses of these three traditional approaches, which can offer research brokerage that makes available the most appropriate techniques, and which can bring together the distinctive offerings of market-research agencies, universities and management consultancies as a total resource in helping clients to make optimal decisions. An acceptance of new kinds of professional alliances will be required, as 'meta-consultants' look for cooperation, not competition, among those who are based in each of these three domains.